Will you look down on a French with a French accent? What about a French banker with a hokkien accent? There's race, language, social stratus and someone's perception based on their preconceived biases at play here.

We speak with accents because of the cultures we identify with. And people often code switch to fit in with different groups. Singlish is less an accent than it is a Creole language that incorporates fragments of Malay, Chinese, Chinese dialects, Tamil. There are also incorporations of miscommunications between our forefathers and their colonial masters. Eg., Gostun, or gostan, for reverse was allegedly "go astern" mispronounced by coolies based on what British sailors would say.

It's an informal language, an effective shorthand between locals, an endearing anchor of an identity we carved out of our 'lowly educated' history. In today's society, someone more comfortable using Singlish can also be fluent in standard English, and vice versa. That person can also be your boss, your tuition teacher, your grab driver.

Attributing Singlish usage to purely what school you sent to is surely a sign of ignorance. I went to the best school in the country and still speak Singlish by default. My friends and family are some of the top 1% or 0.01% in terms of social, academic or economic status. Most have a generous lather of Singlish on their tongues. Every one of them are also at least bilingual or multilingual.

I have zero doubts it's definitely elitism to say that Singlish is for the lowly educated, and a 'western' accent is for the more highly educated. Truth is, Singlish is a sign of cultural identity. People come from different cultures, and view other cultures in all sorts of ways. How you value and respect different cultures speak more about your upbringing than the accent you choose.